Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-06-02
FARM NOTES.

1t is estimated that in Chicago alone
there is made and sold more adulterated
maple sugar every year than the entire
product of the pure article in Vermont.
The gooseberry bushes do best when
they are well trimmed. They make very
rank growth. II is the fruit that does
best in partly shade, and if the mildew
does not attack it crop may always be
looked for. They are not grown extern
siyely for sale, but every farm and garden
should have space devoted to them.
If you have old trees that have failed to
yield profitable crops of fruit, dig the soil
up thoroughly and then apply good
dressing of well rOtted stable manure
and work thoroughly into the soil. Then,
if you have them, apply dressing of
wood ashes. If they fail TO revive the
tree, after giving good pruning, it is
about past redemption, and should give
away TO something better.
OF all the dairy products, buttermlk is
perhaps the best appreciated. 1t is more
easily digested than sweet milk, as IL has
Undergone a fermentation, which is par
tial disgestion, and enters the stomach
in loose haky state, easily acted upon
be the gastric juices. In some respects it
resembles koumiss, the most digestible
of milk products. 1t is decided laxative,
and counteracts constipation.
wise farmer will protect the birds
the insect eaters, robbins, cat birds, blue
birds, black birds; thrushes, orioles, red
birds, woodpeckers and the like. All the
birds mentioned have q mission to pre-
form ia the economy of nature. The
martins destroy weevils, the quails chinch
bugs, the woodpeokers dig worms from
the trees, while others eat worms, cater
PLIERS and hpg,s,... -.-
The different powers of certais-g -assa5
TO keep land Sweet" or fertile and pro-
ductive, will some time bo studied aud
argued. When that time comes the
strong, deep-rooted native American gras-
ses will be allowed to complete for the
esteem of reasonable people, With our
present practice we often hear farmers
saying that their land grows hard and
requires stirring to get crops out of It,,
IL is not always the farmer who is most
interested in the continual blowing and
re-seeding OF land.
Vine-growers in regions whore mildew
Dibtu HItNhll0 NhuNlu uluht ll4di VI lut
following remedies: Thirty five pounds
of sulphate of copper is dissolved in fifty
three gallons of water, thirty three
pounds % quick lime is slaked in eight
gallons of water; the lime and water
mixture is then poured into the solution
of copper. In using, keep the mixture
well stirred, 1t can be applied TO the
foliage with whisk broom. The treat
ment should be commenced soon after
the foliage is we'll out, and be repeated so
as TO protect the latter foliage. The
quantities of the substances can be chang
ed while preserving the proportions.
Locust, white or yellow, should be soak
cd in warm water at the time for corn
planting for twelve hours, and the seed
then placed between folds of damp cloths
kept warm until the first signs of germina-
tion be discovered and then sow in rows,
rather thickly the rows three feet apart
for ease in cultivation. Keep clean, and
the seedlings may be planted next year
where they are to stand. Catalpa seed
may be sown rather more thinly, but need
not be soaked. They may be transplant
ed as directed for locust, if for a grove
ixi feet apart, thinning alternate rows,
and afterward alternate trees IN the row,
as necessity may dictate.
Prof Henry advises farmers 10 90 slow
on alfalfa. lie thinks it well enough TO
experiment with it, but has little faith IN
its proving profitable except where it can
be irrigated and ON land having a loose,
porous subsoi many feet in depth. At
the Wisconsin experiment station he had
never succeeded in getting 1t through the
second winter. lie thinks the common red
clover far superior to it, except whore the
alfalfa can be irrigated, and Is further of
the opinion that sweet clover Mellilotus
alba has more value as a forage plant
than it has been giyed credit for, though
not committing himself ON this point TIL
further experiments.
IL is curious how little attention is paid
to the cultivation of those garden crops
that require very little care and yet that
are so much appreciated when brought
upon the table. Spinach is one of these
crops. 1t is found in but comparatively
few gardens, and yet is easily grown and
is very relishable. Il might have been sown
last autumn, asd if lightly mulched would
have been all right Now it may be sown
in the spring as soon as the ground is
tit. and two weeks from the first sowing
there may be second. There are two
varieties. the pricky seeded and the
round, the latter being the best. u re-
uuires bat small bed to supply a family
with all the green's needed.